Cocoa Beach, Royal Caribbean Cruise and WDW vacation - Day 6 - WDW

Debarkation and Walt Disney World

Having purchased The Key, we were able to attend a sit down debarkation breakfast. But it sounded long and the selection limited and we decided it just sounded simpler to go to Windjammer instead so that’s what we did. After breakfast, we hopped back to the room to grab our carry on bags and went to where we were supposed to meet for our special “priority” debarkation with The Key. I have to say, we did get to skip the line, but it was sort of awkward and ill handled. I felt really self conscious as we got odd (and a few downright dirty looks) as we were basically just lead to the front of the line to have our cards scanned and get off the ship.

Once in the terminal building we found our luggage, reshuffled some items and then got in the line for customs and immigration. And then we waited and waited and waited and waited. And waited. We have debarked in 5 ports: Port Canaveral, Miami, Puerto Rico, Civitavecchia (Rome), and Vancouver. I was going to comment that I didn’t think we waited that long in PC last time, but I just went back and checked my trip report from The Dream sailing we did out of PC and I commented on how long we waited at customs. So I’m not sure if it was a matter of the sheer number of people on a bigger ship (like Mariner or Dream) or if that’s how PC rolls. They only had two agents on duty and it seems to be I recall far more agents on duty at the other ports where we’ve debarked.

We bumbled our way back to where the rental car shuttle had dropped us off, not quite sure if that’s where we were supposed to be and then I vaguely remembered the shuttle driver telling us he would pick us up in exactly the same spot and that he actually preferred the Disney terminal for that reason - drop off and pick up are in different places and he felt like it made things smoother for passengers.

The shuttle bus didn’t take too long and we found ourselves back at the chaotic Budget Car Rental office. We got our car and got underway, stopped at a Whole Foods once we reached Orlando. Last time we were at WDW, we got Amazon Prime Now delivery, but since we had a car, we figured we could quickly stop at Whole Foods and pick out our own stuff.

We arrived at Wilderness Lodge to check in, but our room wasn’t ready so we handed off all our stuff to bell services and drove over to Beach Club for our lunch reservation at Beaches and Cream. I wanted to return there because on our last trip I had the best veggie burger I’ve ever eaten in my life (no joke - it was that good). We were early and I was worried we would have to wait a long time. It’s just hard to gauge how long everything is going to take so I was overly cautious with our lunch reservation. It wasn’t a problem, though, to my surprise and we didn’t have to wait long at all. Regrettably, they have a new head chef and have replaced the amazing house made veggie burger with a Beyond Burger. I like Beyond Burgers, but I can buy those at the grocery store so it felt like a wasted trip.

At this point, it was time to part company, Emmaline and I made our way to Epcot (with our shiny new Annual Passes in hand) and Roger took the car back to Wilderness Lodge with the hope that the room would be ready soon and he could rest for a bit before his evening flight home to Austin.  Regrettably it wasn’t ready until later in the day and he spent most of his time hanging out in the lobby. I mean, it’s a nice lobby, but it’s not quite the same. The room was super nice, though and it was nice that he could order our suitcases up to the room for us.

I’m not going to detail every ride we rode and every show we saw at WDW. I’ll probably post one more entry that goes over some highlights and I also want to post some final thoughts comparing and contrasting DCL vs. RCCL as well as my further reflections on our trial of another line and what’s next for us.


Fetching headwear they were handing out in Windjammer one day.

Click here for Days 6-9 at WDW.